A morally bad MC with no sob story

[NotaNuffian]

What I mean by morally bad are two things; actively performing nefarious deeds upon undeserving targets and being the first one to initiate the aggression.

The meaning is as below:
1. Actively Perform Nefarious Deeds: rob/ steal/ torture/ murder/ rape etc. Any act that is labelled as a crime in Geneva and general law, it is nefarious
2. Undeserving Targets: this is subjective, but often relates to those that is not antagonizing the MC.
3. First One to Initiate the Aggression: this is difficult to state because as many CN MCs would say "when you climb up the ranks, get ready to offend people." In many cases, the antagonizing forces often see themselves as the victims rather than the aggressors as MC just swoops in to "take their jobs/ steal their fruit etc." In most of the above stated cases however, MCs are often depicted as understanding and therefore, not the first one to sling insults upon others.

Second, I get that the sob story aka sad backstory to justify is to make readers sympathize and relate with MC, therefore increasing audience engagement. Even Daoist Gu does it with the opening of "Fang Yuan suffered through the harsh world, understood the dog-eat-dog truth and becomes the incorrigible scoundrel many edgy fans relate to."

Thirdly, for bad guy MCs, there is Boxxy in ELLC, it is not a human, does not have humanity, therefore any bad things it commit is sort of omitted.

In conclusiob, there really isn't any morally bad MCs out there that doesn't have sad backstory or isn't forced against their will to be bad such as in a CN with a lich that got a Villain System. I get that no readers other than true psychos would enjoy reading a bad guy's journey of continuously being bad, but I am now ranting because I am tired slightly as to how writers would do an evil MC; by having the evil performed offscreen and only showing the "good" to the readers.

 

[MarekSusicky]

Mostly it's about target audience. In Mass Effect, 92% of players chose Paragon in any given moment. That's a game you can play multiple times, so only 8% Renegade is kinda telling. (Mass Effect would be the dick without sob backstory)

People want to read about good guys. So even if they are villains, they are good guys. Kinda.

But, as every niche, you can target the ones that want to read a good villain story, me included. I like the stories, where the MC is pragmatic and doesn't care about morals. If the murder is the best action, they'll take it. Kill babies? Sure. Rip the dogs' throat, because it would bark at you when you rob the house? Well...

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Humans are social animals, and if too many of us broke the social contract, we would not survive. We are hardwired to be good. You know what my 3-year-old did this morning? He loaded the dishwasher. I didn't tell him to do it, though I did tell him to wait until I had put all the clean dishes away. He just wanted to help. If you're going to have an evil MC with no sob story, they'd need to have a serious brain problem.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Wish I hadn't lost "Hunter's Moon" to a hard drive crash. Every chapter had a morally bad character (each was told in first person by a different character), and only two of them (sort of... it was complicated; and a third who may or may not actually exist has a story that MIGHT be a sob story if you consider being an immortal being trapped in a standing stone for 500 years a sob story...) had "sob stories" ... at least before their deaths...
It was a horror story. I may have to try it again but always had to step away from it for a few days or weeks because it kept getting TOO dark and nasty.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Wish I hadn't lost "Hunter's Moon" to a hard drive crash. Every chapter had a morally bad character (each was told in first person by a different character), and only two of them (sort of... it was complicated; and a third who may or may not actually exist has a story that MIGHT be a sob story if you consider being an immortal being trapped in a standing stone for 500 years a sob story...) had "sob stories" ... at least before their deaths...
It was a horror story. I may have to try it again but always had to step away from it for a few days or weeks because it kept getting TOO dark and nasty.

This is a second gripe I have with evil/ bad MC.

It's one-off.

Like, no one had bothered with one single MC and their perspective ONLY and lasting for an entire series. It is always shorts, one chapter only and maybe even paragrahs before switching the perspective to other characters who aren't evil/ bad.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

This is a second gripe I have with evil/ bad MC.

It's one-off.

Like, no one had bothered with one single MC and their perspective ONLY and lasting for an entire series. It is always shorts, one chapter only and maybe even paragrahs before switching the perspective to other characters who aren't evil/ bad.

Well, my story had ... well, either one or two (hadn't decided if I would end it with the Sherriff or the psychiatrist) character who was NOT morally questionable... and no "heroes" - just victims and bystanders... Two characters seemed to have redeeming traits but then turned out to be possibly the worst...
But yeah, pretty much you have to either do something like John Norman did with the Gor novels and have your character start out heroic and decay into a monster or make it a horror story to pull anything like this off effectively IME.

 

[Indicterra]

This does not spark joy bruv, people can stomach edgy or insane mc, even asshole's with redeemable qualities

But any MC whose whole gig is being Evil for the sake of evil, That's a very unique for a MC I give you that, but in the end it's is what it is.

A poorly written Villian

 

[cabbag3]

- Have you read Ouroboros Record ~Circus of Oubeniel~?
I'm not sure if this fits the morally bad MC category with no sob story.
We don't really now anything about his background other than he's reincarnated from Japan, and that he's afraid of dying again. Maybe he was a really upright guy in his previous life, but the experience of dying changed him, idk.
It's an interesting story, but there's a lot of asspulls and the plot is kinda flat for me so I dropped it midway. Well tbf, I might've expected too much since a lot of people liked it.
- There's Summoned Slaughterer too but that one's a bit stale, decent gore writing tho.

 

[ParticleOfSand]

I suspect such a story would also be mentally draining on the author to write. You can try to write one yourself. I'm curious how bad you can make it.

 

[Plantorsomething]

What I mean by morally bad are two things; actively performing nefarious deeds upon undeserving targets and being the first one to initiate the aggression.

The meaning is as below:
1. Actively Perform Nefarious Deeds: rob/ steal/ torture/ murder/ rape etc. Any act that is labelled as a crime in Geneva and general law, it is nefarious
2. Undeserving Targets: this is subjective, but often relates to those that is not antagonizing the MC.
3. First One to Initiate the Aggression: this is difficult to state because as many CN MCs would say "when you climb up the ranks, get ready to offend people." In many cases, the antagonizing forces often see themselves as the victims rather than the aggressors as MC just swoops in to "take their jobs/ steal their fruit etc." In most of the above stated cases however, MCs are often depicted as understanding and therefore, not the first one to sling insults upon others.

Second, I get that the sob story aka sad backstory to justify is to make readers sympathize and relate with MC, therefore increasing audience engagement. Even Daoist Gu does it with the opening of "Fang Yuan suffered through the harsh world, understood the dog-eat-dog truth and becomes the incorrigible scoundrel many edgy fans relate to."

Thirdly, for bad guy MCs, there is Boxxy in ELLC, it is not a human, does not have humanity, therefore any bad things it commit is sort of omitted.

In conclusiob, there really isn't any morally bad MCs out there that doesn't have sad backstory or isn't forced against their will to be bad such as in a CN with a lich that got a Villain System. I get that no readers other than true psychos would enjoy reading a bad guy's journey of continuously being bad, but I am now ranting because I am tired slightly as to how writers would do an evil MC; by having the evil performed offscreen and only showing the "good" to the readers.

Genocide Online ~Playtime Diary of an Evil Young Girl~ - Novel Updates

www.novelupdates.com

This is not exactly what you’re looking for, but I’d say close. The MC does have a bad backstory, but she’s also on top of that a born “psychopath” with hints of sadism. I only put psychopath in quotes because the term is made from sketchy science.

 

[NotaNuffian]

- Have you read Ouroboros Record ~Circus of Oubeniel~?
I'm not sure if this fits the morally bad MC category with no sob story.
We don't really now anything about his background other than he's reincarnated from Japan, and that he's afraid of dying again. Maybe he was a really upright guy in his previous life, but the experience of dying changed him, idk.
It's an interesting story, but there's a lot of asspulls and the plot is kinda flat for me so I dropped it midway. Well tbf, I might've expected too much since a lot of people liked it.
- There's Summoned Slaughterer too but that one's a bit stale, decent gore writing tho.

Yup, I hate that too.

I think I had written this kind of thread before, ngl.

I suspect such a story would also be mentally draining on the author to write. You can try to write one yourself. I'm curious how bad you can make it.

I tried.

Hated it.

Genocide Online ~Playtime Diary of an Evil Young Girl~ - Novel Updates

www.novelupdates.com

This is not exactly what you’re looking for, but I’d say close. The MC does have a bad backstory, but she’s also on top of that a born “psychopath” with hints of sadism. I only put psychopath in quotes because the term is made from sketchy science.

Yeah I had seen it too.

It was meh for me.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I did something close. Deleted it all anyway. It's very draining to write. Readers hate you for writing it and will call you a shit person. You can get a surprising amount of readers, but the payoff is not even great. Like many of the readers hate me but keep reading anyway.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

In conclusiob, there really isn't any morally bad MCs out there that doesn't have sad backstory or isn't forced against their will to be bad such as in a CN with a lich that got a Villain System. I get that no readers other than true psychos would enjoy reading a bad guy's journey of continuously being bad, but I am now ranting because I am tired slightly as to how writers would do an evil MC; by having the evil performed offscreen and only showing the "good" to the readers.

Talking about evil without understanding what evil is, this is the vibe the absolutely majority gives me, they define evil without truly saying why it's evil. For that we need the most basic of sociology (and ethics but I know nothing about ethics), every human develops vague values upon the said humans acts, these are further defined into norms that are more clear rules, the things are created through sanctions (socialization and learning). The anatomy might change how this process is executed in the detail.
With these basic concept you should be able to understand morality far better.

About "there isn't any morally bad MCs out there that doesn't have a sad backstory or isn't forced against their will to be bad", like of course, justification is the naivete version of reason, the reason in causality, nobody is "good" for no reason and evil isn't any different. Like even murderes don't act without reason, no matter how reasonable you think it is, the best thing to reasonless murder is a murder in a state of mania but even then the state of mania is enough reason because reason hasn't to be the will or opinion of the person.

I still agree with your annoyance though, if I want to see a person do things that contradict my values I don't want to be told about them offscreen, that's true for everything else as well.

Genocide Online ~Playtime Diary of an Evil Young Girl~ - Novel Updates

www.novelupdates.com

This is not exactly what you’re looking for, but I’d say close. The MC does have a bad backstory, but she’s also on top of that a born “psychopath” with hints of sadism. I only put psychopath in quotes because the term is made from sketchy science.

This is one of my favourite books because of the characters and nothing else (the characters are definitely the best part about it), the exploration of the psyche of the different characters were fascinating. You can learn one or the other thing about how a human can become. It showed a ASPD coded character being able to have actual relationships (because there are definetly people with ASPD that can form social connection), it shows how sadism can develop in a person. Overall it is one of my favourite explorations of "evil".

 

[Tsuru]

I did something close. Deleted it all anyway. It's very draining to write. Readers hate you for writing it and will call you a shit person. You can get a surprising amount of readers, but the payoff is not even great. Like many of the readers hate me but keep reading anyway.

?
sad to hear that (that you suffered that)

 

[RepresentingDesire]

I did something close. Deleted it all anyway. It's very draining to write. Readers hate you for writing it and will call you a shit person. You can get a surprising amount of readers, but the payoff is not even great. Like many of the readers hate me but keep reading anyway.

I have seen many novels with evil protagonist that get negative review bombed because of the evil characters, regardless of the reason for the evil. Writing something truly evil is despised because it would fundamentally contradict values (if the person thinks there's no real reason to distinguish the book from reality), then sanctions would be sometimes tried to make and then you get your review bombing.

 

[ClosetPossum]

Sounds like my main protagonist Tsubasa and his gang
(First Story in Signature)
They kill without warning, remorse, or empathy treating bad guys as targets and victims as "collateral damage"

 

[cabbag3]

Yup, I hate that too.

I think I had written this kind of thread before, ngl.

Well, there's still more to literature than web novels and manga, but I can't always afford printed books so I tend to borrow from my friends.
There's still other morally bad MCs out there, but wouldn't always fit in the "actively performing nefarious deeds" category. Here's some,

- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (I haven't read her other books)
- The Wasp Factory (I was kinda disturbed by this, tho this has a "sob" story)
- A Clockwork Orange
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (I had to read for a Literature project)
- Would Death Note count? (Fck it, I might as well add it to the list)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Perfume: The story of a murderer (I just liked this one so I'll add it in)

Most of the web novels I read where the MCs are "evil" or "morally bad" are usually just in it for the benefits. Tbf, I don't actively look for books with "morally bad" MCs, most people would probably just read what's available.

 

[Leti]

I get that no readers other than true psychos would enjoy reading a bad guy's journey of continuously being bad, but I am now ranting because I am tired slightly as to how writers would do an evil MC; by having the evil performed offscreen and only showing the "good" to the readers.

You know what is more tiring? When the "evil" performed onscreen is showed as "good" to the readers. Usually, it involves justifying why the bad guy must perform the "evil" instead of presenting it as an act of "evil" for the sake of "evil."

Just make the MC evil. Evil people don't do evil things out of necessity or out of circumstance, they just do. For example, sending missiles to school, hospital, and churches then justify it as necessary because terrorists are hiding there? That's cowardice, not evil. Evil people don't need to hide or defend their evil actions and the intent behind them.

 

[Enkiari]

In conclusiob, there really isn't any morally bad MCs out there that doesn't have sad backstory or isn't forced against their will to be bad such as in a CN with a lich that got a Villain System. I get that no readers other than true psychos would enjoy reading a bad guy's journey of continuously being bad, but I am now ranting because I am tired slightly as to how writers would do an evil MC; by having the evil performed offscreen and only showing the "good" to the readers.

This conclsuion is... Frankly bad.
Do you understand that Evil MC stories often breach ToS? It's not that there are no stories like that, it's that they can't be posted on most sites.
If you go out of your way to search for them, there is an incredible amount.

Also, what others pointed out. Most people just want to read about people who do good.

 

[Macha]

This conclsuion is... Frankly bad.
Do you understand that Evil MC stories often breach ToS? It's not that there are no stories like that, it's that they can't be posted on most sites.
If you go out of your way to search for them, there is an incredible amount.

Also, what others pointed out. Most people just want to read about people who do good.

You can solve this problem by not posting on RR because everything breach their ToS.

And make the story evil vs evil with whatever the mc doing is actually good if you squint compared to his enemy because he is lawful evil not chaotic evil type of person.